Classroom at the Ready!

I love the beginning of school.  Prepping is such fun--I get to make Art just for my kiddos, and show off a bit.  I'm pretty enamored of my door and entry area.

Welcome to Art Class!

I get so stoked about the kids coming and seeing everything--I really feel like they are more excited about Art when it looks inviting.  In the weeks before the kids come, I get my room looking all fun and exciting.  Take a look at my setup this year:

The reading center has seating now!

 Supply shelves are along the back wall and side wall by the door.  Everything lives in the same place every year, so all the students know exactly where to look for what they need.  

Above:  Drying rack and paint area.  The cart has pre-cut paper of various sizes on the top part so I always have the size I need in at least one class amount, so I don't start a lesson without what I need.  Nothing worse than having to cut paper right there as you are talking to the students, because you forgot to do it prior to their coming to class!

 I like to put up what the grades are doing, with standards.  Info posters for line and color theory are here now, as we are going through the rules this week and there's no real Art being made.  I believe rules and procedures are so important!  The colored bins are filled with items we commonly use, so that they can be passed out quickly.  Each table has their own corresponding color bin of glue, scissors, and markers.  Likewise, I have small colored bins with sharpened pencils and separate ones for erasers, for easy distribution.  Plus, I can keep track of the erasers--kids who love to stab them get outed pretty fast, since they're hurting their own stuff!  I can check at the end of class and, well, you know how it goes.  However, if we have true problems with it, I have a checkout system for erasers.  More on that another time.

Above you can see the teacher sink and organizational space.  To the left are the gray drawers for the K, 1, and 2 grades; 3rd grade flat work goes in the shelves right next to the drawers.  I have another set of big drawers for 4th and 5th.  You can see the magazine holders that house the sketchbooks for each class, on the shelves to the right.  I have the students make their own sketchbooks, and they are stored on the shelves for easy access. They get them to take home at the end of the year.  

Below:  I opened up the room a bit by moving the tables off of the angles they've been in for a number of years.  The angles were great for having kids not have their backs to me when I'm at the board; however, there was a real trade off in movement around the room.  It was tight in places, and after a couple of years I got tired of trying to get between tables.  Having them in straight rows gives more room for circulation.  I also placed two of the tables end to end (you can kind of see them in the second picture, and also below), as one of them only gets used with my largest classes.  This opened up the room further.

These are the two tables I put together to open up the room.

Of course we all know I love doing the bulletin boards at the beginning of the year.  I don't have any artwork right off, so I always make a couple of boards that look good while we are waiting for finished work to be posted on them.  Here are 3 of the 5 that are mine to decorate:

I can't take too much credit for this.  I got the idea from a Pinterest pin I saw (I'm sorry I can't remember who did it--I'd love to give them credit).  But the hours spent putting it together were all me!  The one below was logical to be on the opposite side of the doorway...gave me some balance and let me use the neutral paint squares.

The last two are on a corner.

Those first days of school are so precious--seeing students after a whole summer and how much they've grown (what do they eat, vegetables from Chernobyl?).  The  new littles come in--how kindergarten teachers do what they do is amazing.  They are so inquisitive.  Love them!

I've got lots in store for my students this year.  It's always exciting to get things rolling.  We will be working in 2-D and 3-D, in all kinds of ways--can't wait to get it all rolling.  In fact, next week pretty much all classes will be up to their elbows in paint or ink.  Yay!  Let's get this  party started!

Back to School, Just Like All of Y'all....

Here we are again!  I loved stepping into Choice Based Art last year with my 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders; I'm going to do it again this year, although I'm tweaking some stuff.  In the next week or so I'll put up some results from last year (forgive me for not doing this at the appropriate time--you know how that burnout thing is, right?) so you can know how it turned out. Maybe as a teaser for this year--stay tuned!!

Here are the bulletin boards.  Compare to last year if you like--you'll notice they're once again teaching tools, same themes, but a little bit of new material.  My fave is the Elements of Art board--I dig the picture frames.  I'm sure I'm not the only Art teacher who gets in the zone making all the cool bulletin boards and posters.  While all my colleagues are stressing over room prep and class lists, I'm earbuds in, rocking out (sometimes dancing--don't judge), and making Art for my kids.  I'll post some pix of my room later.

The landscape, still life, and portrait boards are a little too stock for my wild-at-heart artistic self, but I want my kids to see work by Artists we are going to study.  Otherwise, I'd just fill the boards with my own fun work.   But you know how it is, we actually have to do our job and teach about all those folks.  I used some of the same works as last year...I really dig the diversity in the portrait set, though.  All those Artists are faves of mine.  Reppin' the ladies a bit, too.  I wonder if I need to go Guerilla Girls on my school this year.  Hmmm.

Teachable Tools

This year I started out strong on my bulletin boards.  Every year I do a bunch of pretty ones--they are nice to have when you don't have any art to display yet.  But this year I wanted pretty and useful, and so I set up teaching tools on my bulletin boards.  Take a look:



The Elements and Principles boards were really helpful with 3rd-5th grades, as their first projects had to do with Elements and Principles, and discussion was then followed up with a trip to the media center and the beginnings of research.  It was so successful that I am planning on making Elements and Principles boards every year.



The Basics boards were put on backgrounds of  primary colors, just one more basic that gets a rubber stamp on it in a sort of subtle way.  I liked being able to share the artists with my kids, too.

 

I liked the idea of getting the kids into the halls to see the boards, and felt that it would be good to be able to get them out of the classroom. It was an opportunity to share the stuff we are supposed to hit no matter what, and to let them be a catalyst to finding examples of these concepts around the school.  Study the bulletin boards, then go find examples, like a scavenger hunt.